1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a female terminal and a chain terminal thereof.
2. Background Art
Among connectors for interconnecting wire harnesses in an automobile, there is known the type of connector in which terminals made of metal are received within a receiving chamber formed in a housing made of a synthetic resin. In such a connector, when a housing having male terminals received therein is fitted to another housing having female terminals received therein, distal end portions (hereinafter referred to as “male tabs”) of the male terminals are inserted and received respectively in internal spaces of the female terminals. Thus, the male terminals are electrically connected to the female terminals, respectively.
With respect to the structure of the female terminal into which the male tab is adapted to be inserted, for example, opposite side portions of a thin metal sheet are bent inwardly to form a pair of cantilever-like curled portions of a generally mountain-shaped cross-section (i.e., a generally inverted U-shaped cross-section). The curled portions and a convex bottom surface continuous with these curled portions jointly form a space serving as a receiving portion. The female terminal structure is disclosed in JP-A-2001-167834. In the female terminal, the male tab is inserted into the receiving portion, and is resiliently urged by the pair of curled portions, and is held between the pair of curled portions and the bottom surface, and therefore is retained in the receiving portion.
In recent years, a small-size design of connectors for interconnecting wire harnesses mounted on automobiles or the like has been advanced, and for example, a small-width design of male tabs of male terminals has also been advanced. Under the existing circumstances, however, a small-width design of a receiving portion of a female terminal for receiving the male terminal has been less advanced as compared with the small-width design of the male tab. This is attributable to the fact that in the case of the female terminal, not only the small-width design of the receiving portion must be achieved, but also a required spring (resilient) performance for providing a required retaining (fixing) force for retaining the male tab must be secured. Namely, in order to secure the retaining force for retaining the male tab, a clearance ((the width of the receiving portion)−(the width of the male tab)), formed when inserting the male tab into the receiving portion, must have a predetermined amount regardless of the width of the male tab. And, the clearance rather tends to increase with the decrease of the tab width.
When the clearance, formed upon reception of the male tab in the receiving portion, thus increases, it is feared that the electrical performance of the connector may be affected. For example, the male tab received in the receiving portion is liable to shake because of the formation of the clearance, and therefore the male tab swings or oscillates in a longitudinal direction, and as a result wear due to a sliding movement is promoted, or mating contacts are displaced with respect to each other, so that the electrical connection may be liable to become incomplete.
For example, in the terminal structure of JP-A-2001-167834, the cantilever-like curled portions forming the receiving portion have a large spring constant, and therefore need to be spaced apart in some degree from respective side edges of the male tab in order to suppress the resilient displacement as much as possible. Here, in the case where the clearance between the male tab and each curled portion is decreased, the curled portions tend to become upstanding, so that distal ends of the bent portions thereof can not be pressed into contact with the male tab. Therefore, the terminal structure of JP-A-2001-167834 has a problem that in the case where the terminal is formed into a small-size design, the terminal is liable to shake because of the swinging movement of the male tab.